Seems Google Ad Sense has switched this horrible feature on without seeking permission. This causes full page ads to pop up while you are trying to navigate the forum or return to the home screen, which you are forced to cancel before you can proceed. Very annoying. On the .net site there has just been a discussion about this and the administrator has managed to get them turned off. Is there a chance this forum can do the same ?
That illustrates exactly how enshittification* works: degrade the user experience, once he is loyal to your product or service, and then charge him to get back to the experience he had before. *See my thread on this topic in the IT section.
I reluctantly don't use ad-block or disable javascript here, either. Like it or not, the forum has to garner revenue somehow for an owner or owners who seem into it purely for that reason (or it eventually disappears like the others). While indeed deserving a change to some less annoying tactic, the system here pales in comparison to the deluge of gibberish obscuring an average news or whatever website (a growing number of which block the legit content if ad-block is enabled or JS is turned off, as well as derailing Reader View). _
Fair enough. One thing I learned from Doctorow's lecture is that although adblockers work on websites, they don't work on apps, due to the encryption. And that, he says, is why so many companies want you to use their app instead of their website - they get more ad revenue out of you because they know you have to watch their ads. (As it happens I still used a 3G iPhone until a year ago, which could not run most apps. So I use hardly any at the moment - and now I intend to keep it that way.)
I don't use my smartphone for anything really, other than having it if I'm away from home and need to contact someone I'm trying to meet up with or as a security device for my desktop when it needs 2 factor authentication or when I'm in my car and it needs the phone to be in the car to use certain features. I don't even want financial apps to be on my phone. Then again I buy phones for $60 and pay $12/month for the service. I can type fast with a full keyboard on my desktop and it's comfortable to see the screen. None of that applies, for me, with a smart phone. I have a Chromebook and an Android tablet for when I want to be more mobile at home and, for me, they are fine for viewing but not as ideal for responding.
I'm much the same. I don't do any financial transactions away from my study, and I only use the laptop for them. I want my papers to hand and to go carefully, with no risk of distractions. On my (new 5G) phone I have an app for remote control of the the central heating, an old tuning fork app to give me an A for unaccompanied singing, and a thing called PlantNet for identifying plants on my country walks - which is a lot of fun actually. And that's it, I think, apart from the things that came with the phone when I bought it. On the new phone I have however decided to allow it to know where I am , something I had resisted with the old one. That's partly because I'm getting old (70 this summer) and live alone now that my son is at university.
OK I've just decided to experiment with AdBlock Plus on my iPad. So far it seems to clean up annoying news sites like the Independent, which was becoming unusably enshittified by constantly moving and changing ads that make the text you are trying to read jump around on the page. But it does not get rid of the strips at top and bottom of the page on some sites, e.g. Wordle Unlimited. Do you find the same with it? (I'm using Safari).
For websites (not the forum) I also use Reader View, which is natively installed on Firefox, and a Javascript switch app that can disable a lot of junk. Though neither of which may be available for Safari or any iPad version of another browser installed on it (i.e., a question mark with respect to such). I tend to not use ad-blocking apps because some sites will refuse to deliver their content if they detect an ad-block in use. That's why Reader View or the JS switch come in handy, though a few places will cause Reader View to not function properly if they detect it, too. _
I don't get ad's when I log in. If I peruse the forum without logging in, then it's ad central and every second post is a giant ad. I have a pop-up blocker, but not an ad blocker. But I never see them when I am logged in on this site. I should get an ad blocker though, because everyone I know and myself included, are being bombarded with ads on media and social media pages about foot "mushrooms".
Yes, you are right, the ads seem to stop when I log in - which is more than can be said for a lot of sites. What are foot mushrooms? I've looked this up on the web and all I get is stuff about athlete's foot.
Every site, including social media, has been flooded with ads about foot mushrooms which amounts to toe nail fungus. It's been happening for a few months now.
Ah toenail fungus. For some reason I’ve escaped that. I get mainly funeral directors, women’s fashion (??), drilling equipment and prostate treatments. Plus fucking Temu all the time, of course. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I don't get ads for any of the things y'all've mentioned. Never seen a mushroom ad. I do know that what one gets ads for (as well as what one gets as predictive text) can be quite a revealing reflection of what things one clicks through on during their daily browsing. Which is why I'm not telling you what I do get ads for...
Out of curiosity, I logged out to see what I would get. Amex ad and stock trading ad. How ... generic. Man, I am so boring Google AdSense can't even be bothered with me.
Hmm. Actually, I have an idea why I get women's fashion: Luzia:- Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I once, on another forum, got by chance an ad with this girl and thought she was so lovely I made a joke about it and gave her a name. This became a running joke so involved various visits to the company site to get pictures of "Luzia" to post. So I think the algorithm has got it into its head that that is one of my interests. (For a while in my twenties went out with a willowy girl a bit like her, though more English. But she was called Bridget.) Anyway a lot better than drilling equipment or prostate treatments.
